Another woman is retiring from the library. Mary has been a large part of the library quilting group and has been involved in so many retirement quilts for others. So many of the original library quilting group have retired and she was basically one of the last ones left. Three of us from the library along with three others who work on campus or are retired librarians decided to work on a quilt for her. And now that it is her turn and we wanted to make her something really nice.We know she wanted a book shelf quilt and we used this pattern to make her one:
Everyone used the same background fabric and we used our stash to make the bookends. When I put them together, the scrappiness of all the bookends gave the quilt such a wonderful look. The sashing in between the blocks was used to have colleagues sign and leave messages of farewell and good luck for Mary. I made three of the blocks for this quilt. The first block in on the second row and has a the purple books and the grey vase. Since she did work at K-State I decided to make a block that represented her years here...purple fabric, powercats etc. I also wanted to add some additional interest to the quilt, so I added the vase and flowers. My second block is on the third row and is the one that is "quilting/sewing" themed. One of her beloved hobbies is quilting so she needed a block to represent that. My final block is on the last row and is the theme of "travel/map". Mary once mentioned that she wanted maps on her quilt and one of these even represented Kansas.
Once the front was done, I moved to the back and thought hard about what I wanted to use. We decided that K-State fabric would be perfect. As I was going through a quilt store I spotted this fabric that had a girl in a tutu who looked like she was in a library. I knew immediately it would be perfect to use as a quilt label!
I auditioned some fabric for the borders and chose a nice rich brown and black fabric for binding. Since I was going to quilt it, I do what a always do ... a simple meandering.
Everyone used the same background fabric and we used our stash to make the bookends. When I put them together, the scrappiness of all the bookends gave the quilt such a wonderful look. The sashing in between the blocks was used to have colleagues sign and leave messages of farewell and good luck for Mary. I made three of the blocks for this quilt. The first block in on the second row and has a the purple books and the grey vase. Since she did work at K-State I decided to make a block that represented her years here...purple fabric, powercats etc. I also wanted to add some additional interest to the quilt, so I added the vase and flowers. My second block is on the third row and is the one that is "quilting/sewing" themed. One of her beloved hobbies is quilting so she needed a block to represent that. My final block is on the last row and is the theme of "travel/map". Mary once mentioned that she wanted maps on her quilt and one of these even represented Kansas.
Once the front was done, I moved to the back and thought hard about what I wanted to use. We decided that K-State fabric would be perfect. As I was going through a quilt store I spotted this fabric that had a girl in a tutu who looked like she was in a library. I knew immediately it would be perfect to use as a quilt label!
I auditioned some fabric for the borders and chose a nice rich brown and black fabric for binding. Since I was going to quilt it, I do what a always do ... a simple meandering.
I wasn't able to attend her retirement party but they did take pictures for me and I think she was just thrilled as can be with it.
I'd like to make this quilt again and I have plans on giving it to Allison once she has a classroom of her own.
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